Creator, producer and writer Lena Waithe and producer Common at the Los Angeles premiere of the Showtime series “The Chi.”
Showtime

When the actor and rapper Common first read the script for “The Chi” — the Showtime series about black life on Chicago’s South Side — he knew it was something special.

“I thought, ‘This is dope writing and I want to be a part of this,’!” says the Oscar-winning songwriter and a producer on the series. “When I started in the music business, I never thought I would be a producer on a show that is telling our stories in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to.”

“The Chi” (10 p.m. Sundays on Showtime; earlier episodes available on Showtime On Demand and Sho Anytime) was created by Lena Waithe, who like Common is a Chicago native. Last year, she became the first black woman to win an Emmy for comedy writing for an episode of “Master of None.”

The series, which has received positive reviews, premiered Jan. 7, and had solid viewership despite airing opposite the Golden Globes. While the South Side of Chicago has a reputation for violence, Waithe wanted to show a more multifaceted side of the black population there.

“I would never want to paint a picture of us that is all dark, because there’s so much light in our community,” she says.

Indeed, “The Chi” navigates a tricky path between the two. A murder spurs the action, but the series is not a crime story. It begins with a teen, Coogie (Jahking Guillory), riding through the streets and interacting with the folks in the neighborhood. It’s not the prettiest of areas, but it’s not menacing.

We are soon introduced to a trio of young teens who are trying to navigate adolescence, school and understanding girls.

“Being black in America is a very complex state,” Waithe says. “I think there’s a lot of joy and pain in all these things, and that’s what we wanted to get across in the show.”

Waithe moved to Los Angeles in 2006 after college and eventually worked as a personal assistant for director Ava DuVernay on the 2010 film “I Will Follow.” Afterward, Waithe began writing her own scripts.

She wrote the pilot for “The Chi” in 2014, so the series has been a long time arriving. The project drew interest from a number of places, but Waithe wanted to make sure the story was told the way she saw it. Waithe set her sights on Showtime after it aired “The Affair.”

“I thought, ‘This is fresh.’ I thought it was brave and really unique and something I hadn’t seen on television before,” she says. “I needed a place that was willing to tell an unorthodox story.”

Common gives credit to Showtime for being open to doing a show about black life in Chicago. “It is a very special and unique voice that Lena has written from,” he said. “It’s great to see the levity, because there is no border to laughter. To see the kids laughing in this tough environment really humanizes everybody.”

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Waithe says her comedy background does affect the way she writes. “This is the first drama I’ve ever written, and it probably is going to be the only drama I ever write,” she says. “I can’t shake the desire to find funny in a moment.”

She points to a moment on the show when an angry mother comes home to find a young woman under her son’s bed. “A drama writer might have written in a different way, but I was looking for the humor.”

Common then asks her when she knew she could be funny.

She says, “When I was a kid, I would always mimic people on TV — Martin (Lawrence), Eddie Murphy — repeating funny things to get a laugh. I was always the class clown. So I always felt at home in comedy, but as I find my own voice I begin to find other colors and nuances, and now I get to play in both sandboxes.”

When she accepted her Emmy last September, Waithe told the crowd, “I see each and every one of you. The things that make us different — those are our superpowers.” She will make her big-screen debut in Steven Spielberg’s “Ready Player One,” opening in March.

Waithe says she and Common “were adamant about making sure this show was really black, really authentic and very Chicago.”

Though both have moved away from the city, they both return frequently. Common says, “Chicago is our roots. It is the heart center, and we’re always going to stay in tune with it because our families are there.”

Waithe hopes “The Chi” will lead more networks and studios to “show brown people as human beings.” She adds, “As simple as the idea is, it’s a revolutionary act. I’m happy we can be part of that revolution, because it is being televised. We’re showing America how to see us.”